


V-Day Cards

by MrThirst



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: High School AU, M/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-26
Updated: 2016-08-26
Packaged: 2018-08-11 02:55:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7873429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrThirst/pseuds/MrThirst
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jamison gets some rude valentines every year and isn't expecting anything to be different. And then it is. Based on an ask yazzdonut got on tumblr. http://yazzdonut.tumblr.com/post/149062324306</p>
            </blockquote>





	V-Day Cards

Valentine’s Day is a fucking shit piece of bastard ass dumb fuckery excuse for a holiday in Jamison’s humble opinion. Couples were macking on each other 24/7 without the benefit of a special day just for them to get away with it. If asked (and even if not) Jamison would definitely say that society put the holiday in place exclusively for monetary gains in the capitalist system. If pressed with how exactly, his response would be frustrated swearing, wild gesticulations, and filled to the brim of “y’know” and “it’s like this” without giving any concrete evidence (despite being emotionally fueled and driven with the determination of frustration.)

What made the day even more worth pissing on were the cards he always got crammed in his locker. They were rubbish, absolute swill. People had nothing better to do than mock his appearance, mock his accent, mock his personality, mock his  _ missing limbs _ \-- fuck! teenagers were awful. It made his fingers itch to bring one of his bombs in. It wouldn’t take much, he wouldn’t want to kill anyone, just scare them. Maybe hurt them a little bit… just enough they’ll understand, enough they can’t make fun of his  missing limbs anymore without cutting at themselves in the process.

But Lucio and Hana wouldn’t like that, would they? They were proud of him already for getting through the beginning of the school year without getting into any fights yet. (Not that the fights were _ really _ his fault ((usually)) people just couldn’t help running their mouths or trying to jump him between/after classes.) Still, his friends were glad to see him in the relative safety of non-physical violence. 

 

Unfortunately, Jamison’s friends loved Valentine’s Day. Said it was ‘romantic’ or some shit. The pair of them ganged up on him and dragged him to the mall one weekend. Over a month away and Valentine’s Day was already dominating everything. Every storefront seemed to be plastered in pink, red, and white hearts and stupidly sappy text about loved ones. Jamison glowered at all of them. He had been brought along for quality time with friends and he loved them but that didn’t mean he had to be happy about it.

“Jamison, hey, over here! This is cute!” Lucio waved him over to a store front. Groaning and rubbing at his eyes, he wandered blindly in the direction of his friends, slamming headlong into something very large and solid. Stumbling back, his bum leg wasn’t able to support his frantic struggle for balance and he started to fall backwards. 

Something huge grabbed him by the forearm and tugged him up before he hit the ground. His eyes fixed on a boy he knew from school.

Mako Rutledge shared only one class with him, didn’t speak in front of anyone even if the teacher called on him (though still managed to have a couple friends according to Hana), and towered over everyone by at least a foot. When Mako had first transferred to this school, he had been around when Jamison was getting attacked. He had jumped in to defend him; huge and solid like a wall, fists knocking Jamison’s attackers off their feet with one hit. Jamison had been in awe. He’d laughed and introduced himself, said watching Mako fight was the hottest thing he’d ever seen, and asked how Mako had gotten so big. Mako had snorted derisively and stalked off, cheeks burning in what Jamison assumed to be rage or irritation. He had that effect on people; and while he was certain he could have taken the guys now lying on the concrete around him, he didn’t fancy pushing his chances on Mako so hadn’t followed him. Like he’d wanted to... Really, really wanted to. After that, he had fretted awhile trying to come up with something clever to say first, but the inability to do so had dulled his determination. He contented himself with leering from a distance and only occasionally thinking about him during long showers.

Mako helped him to his feet (foot) and looked him over as if checking to see if he’d been hurt.

“Thanks, mate,” Jamison giggled after a half-second of gawking. “Savin’ my ass from getting thrown to the ground again, eh? We gotta stop meeting like this.”

Mako’s eyeroll was obvious even behind his sunglasses. He let go of Jamison’s arm then, lightning fast as if the contact had burned him once he’d remembered he was still holding on.

“Watch where you’re going,” Mako grumbled, then turned and headed off again. Jamison watched him go with wide eyes. He’d never heard Mako speak before. He giggled, and turned back to the display where his friends were waiting. Lucio’s eyes were on him, but Hana hadn’t bothered to turn around.

“I love this,” Hana sighed, pressed against the glass in front of a little gem encrusted bunny pendant.

“It’s pretty elaborate for Valentine’s Day, isn’t it?” Lucio asked, rubbing his chin as he surveyed the pins.

“Who knows?” Jamison shrugged, good feeling ebbing away fast in the face of Valentine’s Day. “I don’t know shit about what's good about this holiday and you know it.”

Lucio clicked his tongue and looked back through the window. Generalized as he'd thought the reply was, Lucio knew exactly what he was thinking about. “I don’t know why you keep reading them. You like burning stuff, why not just burn them before opening them?”

“Well… y’never know…” he muttered in answer, glaring off to the side rather than make eye contact. Mako was still nearby, looking at a crane machine full of stuffed plushes. Ah, so he had a girlfriend too, did he? Stupid holiday. After Lucio purchased the pendant, the three of them walked off, Jamison whinging loudly about the pointlessness of the holiday while Hana tried to steal the rabbit away. They strode passed Mako on their way out as Lucio was telling Jamison he shouldn’t let the valentines get to him. There was a gorgeous, muscular girl with Mako now, Jamison noted vaguely. She was probably the one Mako was giving the plush pig to. The color matched her hair. This holiday was definitely the worst.

 

\-------

 

Monday rolled around as Mondays did. Jamison swaggered into school, finding Lucio and starting his usual Monday-morning complaint about school starting hours earlier than any sensible human should be awake. They shared their first classes together and these shared times in the morning were really the only thing that made coming to school on time worth it. As usual they swung by Lucio’s locker first. 

“Whazzat?” Jamison asked, pointing at a little wrapped box Lucio placed on the shelf inside.

“It’s the pendant I got for Ha--Valentine’s Day,” Lucio answered, swatting Jamison’s hand away with a faint pink blush. “I went ahead and brought it here so I wouldn’t forget.”

Jamison laughed. Lucio punched him for his teasing but that only made him laugh harder.

“It’s still ages away. Why are you even thinking about it now?” Jamison asked through his giggling as the pair of them started their way to his locker.

“I wanna be prepared,” Lucio shrugged. 

“Hana’s already your friend, what are you worked about? She’ll probably love it from you.” Jamison laughed, much more loudly than Lucio appreciated. 

“Keep your voice down!” Lucio hissed, elbowing Jamison in the side and looking around frantically for signs of any other of Hana’s many, many friends. Jamison cackled above him as they reached his locker.

“Besides, there’s cuter girls around, ain’t there?” He fiddled with his lock. “You got on well with Mei a couple years ago, right?”

“You fucked that up,” Lucio grumbled.

“Satya is a babe, or Lena. Jesse’s not bad either.”

"Lena isn’t into guys, Satya’s definitely not an option ‘cause she hates me remember? and  _ Jesse? _ Really?” Lucio rolled his eyes. “Besides, if you think these girls  _ and Jesse _ are so cute then you should go after them, I’ve already got my eye on someone. Besides… Hey… are you listening to me? What’s wrong?”

Jamison was staring at a piece of paper that had fluttered onto the floor when he had opened the locker. Picking it up, he saw it was a little big-shaped Post-It note. A Valentine already? They usually didn’t bother until the actual day… Frowning, he read it while Lucio was talking.

_ You’re the bomb _

Lucio crowded into his space, reading the note out loud. They shared a moment of silence in which Jamison’s face heated up.

“Is that serious?” Lucio whistled, turning a shit-eating grin up at Jamison’s still-staring face. “Ooh~ Jamie~ Someone likes you!”

He snapped back to the conversation at that, shoving the piggy (gently) into his locker. “Don’t be  dick, y’know it’s not true.” His voice wavered with excitement, unable to completely crush the idea that someone actually might be interested. He giggled, rubbing his cheeks and  trying and failing to stop the grin from covering his face. “It’s not signed, so even if it’s true, who’s it from?”

Hana appeared at his shoulder, “who is what from?”

“I got a Valentine,” Jamison answered, holding it up for her.

“A real one, it looks like,” Lucio added as Hana’s eyes flicked over the three words a few times.

“No signature? Aw, a secret admirer! That's so sweet!”

“Okay, okay, lay off,” Jamison snorted in a poor attempt to sound annoyed. He carefully stuck the pig to the inside of the door and slammed the locker shut.

 

\-------

 

Once a week, Jamison came back to a new Valentine shoved in his locker. They were all on little pigs, and were all cute little lines like the first one.

__ _ Are you a bomb, ‘cause you blow me away. _

__ _ We’d have a blast together. _

__ _ I think you’d be a great bang. _

The last one made him laugh so hard he had to lean against the wall to keep upright. It was written in smaller lettering than the first few, as if the writer was nervous about using it. It was Jamison’s favorite one. He kept all the notes stuck to the inside of his locker by the first one, and read them each time he opened the door. They made him giggle all day. His attention span had always been short, but he could hardly go more than a couple minutes at a time without remembering the notes. His mind wandered, eyes tracing over the students in his classes as he tried to determine who it could be. No one paid him any attention that he could find. His heart clenched when he wondered if it was all a joke after all, but the jokes were silly enough he wasn’t sure he would mind terribly… maybe just a little.

“I’ve got me a plan,” he announced to Lucio and Hana at lunch about a week before Valentine’s Day. “Always get these notes on Mondays, so next week, I’m going to get here super early so’s I can keep an eye on things. Ain’t gonna be able to sneak it in this time!”

“Straightforward! Just like you. I like it.” Hana exclaimed.

Lucio didn’t look quite as proud of Jamison as Hana was. “Subtly isn’t really your forte though, are you going to be able to sneak?”

“Psh! Don’t worry ‘bout that, mate, I got it all under control,” Jamison grinned confidently. Somehow, Lucio didn’t find that to be altogether comforting. 

 

\------

 

Monday morning found Jamison pressed flat against the wall around the corner from his locker. He drummed his fingers on the brick, peering around the corner. He’d gotten into the building as soon as it had been unlocked. He’d checked his locker and been ecstatic to see he had gotten there first, then relocked it and scampered off to hide. He gnawed on his lip, checking around the wall every few seconds. He looked around again, groaning to himself.

“What are you doing?”

He whipped around so fast he slammed the back of his head into the wall.

"Ah, shit!” Clutching his skull, he looked up through watering eyes to see Mako looking at him in what looked like might be horror (it was hard to tell; Mako’s expressions never changed much.) After a few moments he recovered enough to register Mako had asked him a question.

“None of your business,” he huffed, twisting around the corner again. Still nothing. Irritated by the interruption, he turned back to Mako. “What’s it matter to you anyway?”

Mako didn’t answer. He stared hard at Jamison as if he might speak, and Jamison stared right back, waiting. In the end, Mako shook his head with a grunt, shoved his hands in his hoodie pocket and stalked off again. 

 

Jamison didn’t get a valentine that morning. It wrecked the whole day, and he went through the motions of his schedule in a dark cloud of gloom. It wasn’t fair. Why hadn’t he gotten a note? Why hadn’t he been able to figure out who it was? 

“They probably saw you and got scared off,” Lucio reasoned (infuriatingly) in class, “maybe you’ll get one next week.”

“But I want it now! They’re supposed to show up on Monday.” Jamison exclaimed petulantly as he pushed his chair back onto two legs. “Why’re they scared, anyway? What’s the worst that’s gonna happen? Not gonna find out if I’mma good bang if they won’t even talk to me.” 

“Relax, man, maybe you’ll get a replacement tomorrow.” 

“I better,” Jamison mumbled, putting his chin on the table. 

“Quit whining about it. We’ll go to Hana’s after school. She said she had some new games and I’ve got a couple new tracks in the work. We’ll have a party and it’ll be fine.”

He perked up at that, pushing off the table again. “A’ight.”

“I’ll swing by your locker after school’s out, ‘kay?”

 

\----

 

Jamison sprinted down the hall, skidding to a halt in front of Lucio.

“Sorry ‘bout the delay, mate,” he wheezed, hands on his knees as he tried to recover. “Got caught up with the--”

Lucio was determinedly looking away from Jamison’s face, rocking back and forth like he did when he had a secret.

“What’s goin’ on?” He asked, straightening up.

“N-nothing,” Lucio answered at once, flashing a very forced smile. “Wanna go?”

Jamison squinted at him, nudging him out of the way so he could get his things to go. “You’re shit at lying.”

Something fluttered out of his locker and onto the ground. His heart skipped as he dropped to grab it. Another pig!

_ If you were any hotter, you’d be on fire. _

He clapped a hand over his mouth to stifle his high pitched giggling. This was by far the worst joke yet, and he adored it.

“Look, look!” He jumped up excitedly, beaming at Lucio, “I got another one! Look at it! It’s so dorky!”

Lucio looked at it politely, didn’t read it, and forced a polite laugh. “Yup. It’s… It’s a good one.”

There was a moment of silence in which Jamison’s smile fell slowly and Lucio’s twitched with the effort to stay in place.

“Seriously, mate, what’s with you? You’re bein’ real fucking weird right now.”

" No I’m not, c’mon, let’s just-- Hana! Hey!”

Hana came hurtling out of nowhere, slamming bodily into Jamison to stop.

“Jamie! News for you!” She panted, tugging her phone out of her pocket. Her phone was always a wonder in Jamison’s opinion: pink case covered in resin she had piped on like cake icing, bathed in glitter, and attached so many cute charms to that the mob of little animals and ice creams was larger than the phone itself. “Okay, so like I was texting my friend Lena all day, about her girlfriend’s new transfer student friend-- you know that Russian girl we just got last week? She hangs out with Amelie's friends sometimes. Well, anyway, so Lena was telling me that her girlfriend, Amelie, was telling her that her friend (Amelie’s friend) Mako-- that tall kid you gawk at sometimes, you know the one-- anyway she said Mako likes pigs!”

Lucio and Jamison exchanged a look before looking back at Hana. All three of them had a tendency to ramble on about whatever crossed their minds (Jamison was still reigning champion) but her story didn’t seem finished.

“He likes… pigs?” Lucio repeated in a cautious tone.

“Yeah!”

“So what?” Jamison asked, “lotsa people like pigs. I like pigs. They’re cute n’ they taste nice.”

A smirk curled across her lips as she pulled out a blank pig Post-It note. “Look familiar?”

Jamison took it, staring at it as it shook with the slight tremor of his hand.  “Mako's writing them?” He asked in a hushed voice.

“Yup! That's what it looks like to me!” She turned her grin on Lucio. “How about that! Quite a good bit of sleuthing, I'd say. Plus…” she leaned in and went on in a stage whisper, “I think this means I won.”

“Won what?” Jamison asked as Lucio shook his head quickly.

“No, you didn’t because…” he looked at Jamison, then at Hana. “Come here a minute.” He grabbed her wrist and dragged her off. He called over his shoulder to Jamison, “wait here, we’ll be right back!”

He watched them go, completely perplexed. What the hell was that about? He crossed his arms huffily and leaned hard against the lockers, slamming his shoulder hard into the metal. The clanging rattled his clenched teeth. He did not appreciate their secret keeping. The only bit of solace he had was that both of them were horrible secret keepers-- at least, within their little group they were. He would probably find out what it was all about before the day was done.

They came back into view; Lucio looked slightly nervous, but Hana was positively floating. When they reached him, he looked between their faces and waited. 

“Well? What the hell was that?” He prompted. They immediately started talking at once.

“So, the thing is--”

“Hana, wait!”

“Lucio promised not to tell you--”

“Hana!”

“--But it’s fine if  _ I  _ do because I made no such promise and since he only told  _ me _ he’s not breaking any promises--”

“Stop talking!”

“But he said right before you got here, he saw Mako at your locker! It’s definitely him! He saw Lucio and told him not to tell you, and Lucio promised he wouldn’t!”

“The guy threatened me! He’s like two feet taller than I am!” Lucio interjected, defending himself for the whopping ten minutes he had withheld information from Jamison.

“So… it’s definitely Mako,” Jamison hummed, rubbing his chin. “Is he serious or is he havin’ a go at me too?”

“He seemed flustered that I saw him,” Lucio answered slowly, “I don't know if he just didn't want to be caught playing games or not but he seemed pretty serious to me.”

“Lena said Amelie's been teasing him about a crush all year,” Hana added. “She didn't give me a name, don't think she had one, but it'd make sense to be you, wouldn't it?”

Jamison laughed, hoisting his backpack on. “Dunno if he's serious, but I know how to find out! C’mon, let's blow this joint, I wanna play some games.”

The three departed, Jamison tight-lipped about his plan but free giggles tumbled out of him the whole way to Hana's.

 

\------

 

His hiding place was better this time. Wedged behind an industrial sized trash bin in the stairwell near his locker, he waited. He'd been rehearsing his call-out all night. A really simple “hey, why are you leaving these here?” It was easy and didn't leave room for much. He had spotted Mako once and frightened him off, so he had to up the ante with the element of surprise. No letting him slip away without an answer one way or another.

Same time as before, he spotted Mako entering the building. Grinning, he crept out and followed him around the corner to the hall with his locker. When Mako was right in front of it, Jamison opened his mouth to call out to him.

“Oi, pig-face, what're you doing with my shit?”

They both froze. Mako turned to look at him, expression unreadable, as his own face heated rapidly. Shit. That wasn't what he'd planned at all.

“Shit, sorry,” he snickered nervously and hurried closer. “Didn't mean it like that, mate, honest. Stuff just comes out me mouth before I realize. Anyways, good morning and all that, and uh, whatcha doing?”

Mako didn't answer, simply looked at him blankly and fidgeted with something in his huge fingers.

“Okay anyways, uh, my question is,” he pulled the pig Post-It he'd taken from Hana and held it out. “This yours?”

Mako's eyes widened a fraction when he saw the pig, then slowly looked back at Jamison's nervous smile. 

“It'd be kinda cool if it was,” Jamison blurted out when Mako again didn't speak. “Just… wanna know what's going on, y'know?”

Mako looked uncomfortable and Jamison supposed he couldn’t blame him. Reaching out, he tugged Mako’s hand up by his hoodie sleeve and pushed the pig note into his palm. Giving him a pat on the back of his hand, he grinned again before starting to walk away. He felt pretty smooth handing over his number that way and turned back to here Mako was staring at the pig Jamison had put in his hand. He giggled, catching Mako’s attention.

“Text me, yeah?” He gave him two thumbs up, walking backwards away so Mako wouldn’t feel too pressured like Lucio recommended he try. “Unless this dick is too bomb for you after all.” He stuck his tongue out before turning around and walking away, cackling loudly.

**Author's Note:**

> This turned out to be a bit different than I pictured it, but hey there we go. I know it's August but Valentine's Day fics wait for nothing.  
> Again, huge thank you to Boi Ready for helping me finish this junk. I'm glad it's finished and I can work on chapter 3 of On The Way again.
> 
> Come talk to me about roadrat and stuff  
> mrthist.tumblr.com


End file.
